When to use literary chinese in modern day?

Question

According to wiktionary:

Sinologists distinguish between the language as used in antiquity (Classical Chinese), and the language used after the fall of the Han Dynasty (Literary Chinese), similar to the distinction between Classical Latin and Late Latin. In casual usage, these may be conflated. This should not be confused with the literary register of Modern Chinese, meaning “modern Chinese words that are only used in writing”, or with archaic terms in Modern Chinese. (In the Pinyin Chinese-English dictionary, these usages notes are indicated by <书> and <旧>, respectively.)

For example: In 我係中國人, 係 is literary and I see Hong konger write this context in social media. When to use literary chinese in modern day?

Answer 1

Hong Kongers use 係 because that's Cantonese for 是. They are not using literary Chinese. They don't feel like they are using some archaic or more educated form. 係 is the most common form in today's Cantonese. For non-Cantonese people, that could be literary, though.

For literary Chinese if you mean the language used after the fall of the Han Dynasty (文言文), it is not normally used in the modern day. Some residues are still present as words, such as chengyu.

Answer 2

Sinologists distinguish between the language as used in antiquity (Classical Chinese), and the language used after the fall of the Han Dynasty (Literary Chinese)

well, this description is slightly, . . . imprecise.

in joseph needlam’s book “science and civilization in china” volume vii, page 48:

When to use literary chinese in modern day?

depends on what do you mean “use” (reading, writing, or?)

the culture, history, nearly everything about chinese, before 1911, is recorded in literary chinese. so, to learn, comprehend these aspects, one must know how to read the texts in classical / literary chinese.

for writing, not many people can write literary chinese fluently nowadays, but, they tried hard. a recent example is, on 18 march 2020, an article “大流行緣起武漢” co-written by microbiologist yuen kwok-young, started in literary chinese; though not good, it’s impressive 😸

title & the first paragraph of the text:

大流行緣起武漢 十七年教訓盡忘

己亥冬，疫發武漢。庚子春，湖北大疫，國內疫者八萬餘，死者三千。民不出戶月餘始遏，惟疫未止已外傳。三月，全球大疫，世衛後知，未及宣布大流行。諸國欠措施缺儲備，迅大疫。星、港、澳及台暫免於大疫（原文為「星、港、澳及中華民國皆免於大疫」，作者其後訂正為「星、港、澳、台暫免於大疫」），惟零星海外輸入之症及小群組不絕，尚未失守。

full text is here

another usage is: terms used in correspondence (尺牘用語), these openings, endings, and greetings are strictly in literary chinese. again, not many can quote the terms correctly; those who can, would be treated as “high literacy”

about the character “係” (u+4fc2):

“係” used as “是”, this usage is quite old. i would say, the cantonese language preserved such usage, while others lost it.

in 平定準噶爾方略, it’s full of “係” used as “是”, such as:

成衮扎布係蒙古人